Audi A1 1.6 TDI - beat the congestion charge
Audi has tweaked the A1 1.6 TDI to improve its economy by 5 per cent and reduce it’s Co2 emissions to 99g/km. The price remains the same.
It’s of no use whatsoever for anything that actually matters, but getting below 100g/km Co2 is a big marketing deal for any car maker. Which is why Audi has been busy tweaking the Audi A1 1.6 TDI.
Since launch, the A1 1.6 TDI has been churning out 105g/km which, although it’s all of tuppence a week, gets charged VED simply because the government has decreed Co2 to be the measure of a car’s frugality (it’s not).
It doesn’t attract an exactly killer rate of road tax – just £20 a year after the first year – but somehow it seems to make a big difference to the perceptions of the type of buyer who is swayed by such nonsense.
That said, we do understand anyone living – or travelling regularly within – the London Congestion Zone being impressed by this arbitrary threshold. If that’s you, you could be saving £8 a day by driving a sub-100g/km car.
So now the Audi A1 1.6 TDI manages to emit 99g/km of Co2 and its economy has improved too, by almost 4mpg to 74.3mpg, a feat Audi has achieved by playing with the fuel system and engine management. All very clever, but as the A1 has only been with us five minutes why on earth didn’t they do this from the get-go?
Still, at least the new eco-tweaks don’t mean a price rise too, with the A1 1.6 TDI staying the same price across the range – SE, Sport and S-Line – as before the tweaks.
Maybe they should just call this the Audi A1 London Edition.
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